Premiere: Jaakko Aukusti ‘Moon Tower’

We're delighted at One Quart Magazine to give Jaakko Aukusti's new single a Finnish premiere, listen to the vibrant and colorful Moon Tower.

Category: Music

Reading time: 5 min

Writer: One Quart Editorial

Photos: Emma Larkovuo, Vild

Emma Larkovuo

Turku native Jaakko Aukusti has been slowly growing an impressive following abroad and in Finland with his exuberant brand of anthemic pop music. His new single, ‘Moon Tower’, explores themes of early 20s anxiety, settling down and belief in who you are. Musically, multi-instrumentalist Aukusti injects shades of Animal Collective, Mew and other less obvious references to create a bubbly cacophony of sing-along ear candy.

Aukusti offers hints to ‘Moon Tower’s charms; “The song was originally an almost baroque-pop piece with tons of nylon-string acoustic guitars and loads of handclaps, but that version never ”took off”, so to say. In the studio with producer Artturi Taira the acoustic guitar tracks were cut up and driven through some effects and a sequencer – creating the hyperactive yet hypnotic cyborg-esque guitar loop that drives the track forward. With the loop as a guideline the song took a new form and arranged itself around the will of the guitar, diving boldly into the place where Simon & Garfunkel shake hands with the guys from Animal Collective and the guy who did all the soundtracks to all the best SNES video games.”

Jelena Candolin

As the holiday season approaches we ask Jaakko how he’s going to spend his Christmas time? “Spending christmas with my family deep in the Finnish archipelago with tons and tons of food, since food is the number one best thing about Christmas.” explains Jaakko. And his hopes for 2017? “Hopefully the album will find it’s way to the right people and places. We just played our first gig abroad in Zürich and had a blast so hopefully there’s more of that in store for 2017. Also, we’re keeping our fingers crossed for some summer festival mayhem.”